Everything She Knew
by illdrownwiththisship
Summary: What if it isn't Henry that finds Emma but the other way around? What is it that has Emma running to the son she gave up for adoption 12 years ago? Will Regina be able to help Emma or is Emma beyond saving? A drama/romance fanfiction. Rated M for later chapters. Slow burn Swanqueen!
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note:**

 _Hi guys,_

 _Wow, I know, it's been forever! I finally wrote a Swanqueen fanfiction. I started one before but that never went anywhere, I'm not even sure if it's on my profile anymore. Anyway... Dark times ahead for our dearest Emma so I wanted to write something equally dark but in an AU setting. Please be kind because that's just the right thing to do._

 _Let me know what you all think, thank you!_

 _\- IllDrownWithThisShip_ -Swanqueen-

She walks down a brightly lid hallway, her hands trembling, and her eyes watering. She can hear people talking, and passing her by, but nothing can get her out of the trance she is in. Another turn down this hall and she'll be out of this horrible place. The corridor ends in a big open space, also very bright, with people sitting in chairs, nurses and doctors talking to each other, and a too friendly receptionist greeting people who walk up to her desk. She walks straight by it all, and continues for the rotating doors that'll lead her to the fresh air she so desperately needs. Balding her fists, hoping to hold herself together just a little bit longer. She starts walking even faster and finally reaches the doors, pushing hard against the glass, the coldness relieving some of the trembling in her hands. Luckily no one is slowing her down. Finally outside, she takes in a big gasp of air and rests her hands on her thighs. Her body shaking, giving in to the tears that are threatening to fall. Wiping them quickly before straightening her back, and continuing to her car. The moment she gets in and closes the door with a loud bang, she lets out a gut-wrenching scream. Everything she knew, everything she is, is going to change.

0o0

"Henry!" Her honeyed voice rings through the large hall, she is staring pointedly at a pair of shoes laying at the beginning of the stairway. "Pick up your shoes," she added, "before someone trips and gets severely injured!" She knows her 12 year old son well enough to know that he heard her, and he will come down and pick up his mess. Her brown headed, brown eyed boy isn't a bad child at all, he has just a couple of quirks that she can't seem to correct. She walks away, already hearing Henry's bedroom door opening and closing. She enters the kitchen and revels in the smell of her lasagna, made from scratch. Putting on her mitten, she prepares to open the oven when she hears quick footsteps making her way towards her.

"Dinner almost ready, mom?" She looks up and meets her son's eyes.

"I'm just about to check," she smiles sweetly, "Is your homework done?" He simply nods his head before sliding onto the barstool, resting his elbows on the kitchen island. She takes out the lasagna and puts it on the counter, the sauce is bubbling, and the cheese has turned into a golden brown color. She knows its Henry's favorite, and can feel his anticipation. "Dinner is ready, go sit at the dining room table." She watched as he practically throws his seat back and runs towards the table in the large dining room.

She can't believe it's been almost 12 years since she has adopted him. She had lost all hope, all happiness, all love until Henry had come along. She never told Henry, but she celebrated the day that she actually adopted him, which was 3 weeks after he was born. They recently celebrated his 12th birthday by going to Boston for the weekend. They went to the zoo, ate all the things she normally wouldn't let him, visited the comic-book stores, and went to the movies. They stayed in a luxury hotel, and for the second night they had decided to stay in and watched movies, and ordered room-service. It had been perfect. Never had she ever thought she would be this happy.

Henry knew he was adopted and that she's not his biological mother, she never hid it from him. And he never asked about it. She told him on a regular basis that if he had any questions, or if he wanted to talk about anything she would be there for him but he just smiled and said that he was perfectly happy. The only time he said something about it was when he just found out, _she gave me my best chance,_ the words still edged in the back of her mind. She'd never thought her son would be so accepting of his biological mother just giving up on him. Also she'd never thought of it like that, she'd always been angry with Henry's birth mother, how could you let go of such a gift. How can you give up on your own child? But when he had spoken those words, with such acceptance, such respect. It changed her mind, and she wondered quite often about the woman who gave birth to the most important person in her life. Where is she? What is she doing? Is she still alive? But most of all, why?

"Are you coming, mom? I'm starving," Henry's curious voice interrupted her strain of thoughts. She smiled when she saw his head peak around the corner, "everything okay?"

"Yes, of course, sweetheart," She picked up the dish of lasagna, "Lasagna, coming right up," She walked towards the dining room and ruffled Henry's hair with her empty hand when she passed him by. "Let's eat!"

0o0

Regina laughed as Henry was scraping the last of his desert off of his plate, like he couldn't leave anything behind. "That was extraordinary, mom," She smiled and nodded her head in appreciation. She got up and started bringing the dishes into the kitchen when she heard a knock on the door. She put them down in the sink and asked Henry to bring the rest of the dishes and load them in the dishwasher. Another knock on the door. She dried her hands and made her way to the door, "give me one second," _no patience,_ she whispered to herself. She opened the door and a young lady in her early 30's was standing on her porch. Knee-height boots, tight jeans, white tank-top with a red leather jacket, and a red colored beanie on her head. Big green eyes, that somehow looked familiar, stared back at her. Her mouth slightly agape. Quite frankly, the woman looked exhausted, and pale. "Can I help you?" Regina asked.

"Yes, I'm looking for my son. I believe you adopted him 12 years ago."

-Swanqueen-

 **Authors Note:**

 _What do you think? Continue or what?_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for waiting! I promise the chapters will get longer, I'm having a slow start with this story, I don't want it to be endless chapters, so I have to cut them short in order for them to not be too long! Enjoy!**

Regina closes the door behind her, and steps closer to the younger woman in front of her. "Excuse me?" She isn't sure she heard her right.

"I'm Emma Swan… I gave up a baby boy for adoption 12 years ago. They told me I could find him here." They?

"Who's they?" Regina demanded.

"The adoption agency," Emma answered like she was stating the obvious.

"I was told it was a closed adoption, and the parents didn't want any contact." Regina stared down at the ground, was she here to take her son. What did she want? After 12 years? This doesn't make any sense. She shook her head, and looked the slightly attractive woman in the eye. "I don't know what your intentions are Mrs. Swan, but if you think you can just appear after 12 years and take my son from me, you've got it wrong. You have no idea what I'm capable of." She spat out through gritted teeth, Regina turned around and left a speechless woman standing on her front porch. Once inside she leaned back against the heavy front door and took in a deep breath. She could hear feet shuffling on the porch, leaving perhaps. She let out the breath she had been holding.

"Mom, who was that?" Henry is staring at her from the kitchen.

"No-one, dear, some sales woman." She put on a smile and walked towards her son, her hands slightly shaking.

Emma turned around, what did she expect? To be received with open arms. Yes, your son is here! Come in and give him a hug! She shakes her head, walks down the steps of the porch, and continues towards her yellow bug. Once inside she hugs herself, trying to warm up. Even though it is 75 degrees outside, she's freezing her skinny butt off. Her beanie does little to keep her warm, but at least it's something. She feels her fingers again, and starts her trusty car. She's not going to give up this easily, she needs to see the baby she'd given up so long ago. Make sure he's okay. Though his mom looks mighty scary, it won't stop her. She'd seen a diner when she first drove into this small town, and if she wasn't mistaken there had been a bed and breakfast.

She turns at the end of the street and parks her car across the street from the diner. She gets out and again the cold hits her. She shivers and rubs her hands together, _I should have worn mittens_. She opens the door to Granny's, the smell of fresh baked pastries making her feel right at home. Every occupant in the building stared at her, without any shame. Full blown stares, everywhere. Great. Emma waves awkwardly and finds an empty bar-stool at the very end of the counter. An attractive young woman, with an infectious smile makes her way over, notepad in hand.

"Hi, my name is Ruby, what can I get for you?" Ruby seems like the kind of girl who lives to make people happy, make them feel at home, like they are okay. At least that's the affect she's having on Emma. Emma smiled up at her, "What do you recommend?" Ruby's smile beams even brighter and names a couple of meals that are popular at the diner. Emma orders the salad, even though she'd much rather have the burger and sits quietly while she's waiting on her food. Ruby comes back and stares at her for all about 2 seconds before walking up to Emma again. "So, what brings you to town, uhm…" Emma than realized she never gave the brunette her name. "Emma Swan, nice to meet you, Ruby." She smiles and nods her head in agreement. Never answering her question, she isn't even sure why she's here, how did she think this was going to go, honestly. She never gave much thought about the parents of her son, what they would think. This whole plan was last minute, Emma didn't think it through. Not enough, and now she's in this beautiful small town in the middle of nowhere, where no one knows. Her son closer to her than he's ever been and he's unreachable. Ruby placing her food in front of her shakes her from her thoughts, the salad looks amazing but she's not hungry. She hasn't been in a long time, she takes a couple of bites from the lettuce before pushing the plate away from her, to the other side of the counter. She sees Ruby, watching her like a new and shiny toy. She frowns at the almost full plate that Emma pushed aside, Emma just shrugs at her and Ruby lets it go.

Emma gets up and makes her way to the bathroom, she's getting weak. Like usual around this time at night, she enters the small ladies room and locks the door quickly behind her before pulling out 8 different bottles of medication out of her purse, laying out pills in front of her on the bathroom sink. A knock on the door startles her and she drops some of the pills that were in her hand, "Dammit," she tries to save them but they are already falling down the drain. "Someone's in here," Emma says annoyed. A polite apology follows and Emma continues to line up her medicine. Once she's done she grabs the pills and swallows all of them at the same time. Weird how before she got sick she had problems just swallowing one, now she takes 12 to 15 pills in one big chug. She flushes the toilet, pretending to have used it and opens the door, being met by the woman who had slammed the door in her face just a little while earlier.

"Well, well… look who it is." Her son's adoptive mother spoke, far from friendly. What was she doing here?

"Did you follow me?" Emma asks suspiciously. Crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"I probably have just as many questions, as you do Miss Swan." Emma could tell by the look on the older woman's face that she was struggling to be nice, she continued, "but I'm not comfortable discussing, whatever it is, in front of my son," Regina took a step back, suddenly realizing how close she was to the fragile looking woman. "So if you're not too busy, i'd like to know why you are here."

"I-I uhm..." Emma was dumbfounded. She didn't think this question would come this soon, honestly she hadn't thought any of this through. She could feel herself starting to panic. Unsure of what to do, what to say, she did what she always does. Run. "Listen, I don't have time right now, I've got to get to my hotel room. You think we can do this some other time?" She hated being this weak little girl, she hated _showing_ it to such a powerful, well-put-together, woman. Who basically has everything she doesn't have. She has her kid, she has a house, and most of all... She looks... healthy.

"Listen, Miss Swan, you showed up at my door, wanting to see MY son," Regina was fighting to keep her voice down, Emma could tell. "Whatever this is, it's going to be on my terms. Tomorrow, 12 pm, same place, don't be late!" Emma watched Regina turn around and storm out of the diner, costumers not even blinking an eye. Like this is something that happens daily here. She took in a deep breath and started walking towards her seat at the counter. As soon as the door closed behind Regina, Ruby was standing next to her.

"I see you met our Major?" Ruby looked at her with empathy. Major? _This just keeps getting better._ Emma rolled her eyes,

"Yes, I did."

"What did you do to piss her off?" Ruby grinned. Emma swallowed, not ready to share anything yet, plus Regina would probably not appreciate her spilling the beans before they had a chance to talk.

"I occupied her favorite bathroom stall." Emma shrugged, and Ruby just stared at her before breaking out in laughter.


End file.
